Articles

Fantasea has announced their housing for the Sony a6000 mirrorless camera. The FA6000 uses the company’s FML interchangeable port system, giving compatibility to a “wide range” of lenses. It is equipped with an M16 accessory port, twin fiber optic ports and a leak detector as standard.

The World Shootout is calling for entries. The contest is offering prizes, including dive trips, gear and cash for photographers in 8 categories including: Amateur, Wide Angle, Macro, Fish & Fashion and Sharks. Images can be from anywhere in the world, but must have been taken between 2 November 2016 and 1 November 2017. The deadline for registration and entry is 1 November, please see the contest’s website for full rules and registration details.

In a study published this week in Science Advances, a team of international scientists analyzed publicly available data on seven species of sea turtles around the world in time frames that ranged from 6 to 47 years of data. They found that the populations of six of these species are increasing. In some cases conservation efforts date back to the 1950s, and the threats to their survival are clear and efforts are being made to manage them.

Wetpixel member Jon Anderson has launched a series of cold water extension knobs called EZKnobs for Inon and Sea&Sea strobes on Kickstarter. They are CNC machined from 6061-T6 aluminum, fit right over the existing strobe controls and are retained using a pair of stainless steel set screws.

Retra’s new underwater flash starts shipping to pre-order customers at the end of this week. Alex Mustard and friends share their thoughts and images after extensive testing of the strobe in Egypt, Cayman and Cuba. Alex notes that: “The Retra Flash is big news: a brand new strobe and a new manufacturer joining the underwater strobe market are rare events indeed.”

DPReview has published an article about Justin Hofman’s image that has been shortlisted in the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. It features a small estuarine seahorse (Hippocampus kuda) attached to the plastic shaft of an ear bud or Q-tip.

The winners of the 2017 SoCal Shootout have been announced. Bluewater Photo hosts the annual underwater photography competition that ran from September 8th - 10th this year. Images were taken in the Pacific Ocean anywhere south of Pt. Conception to north of the Mexican border. The prize for Best in Show went to Helen Brierley for her photograph of a Blue-Banded Goby. The prize pool was worth over $20,000 and images were judged by Andy Sallmon and Scott Gietler.

G-Technology has announced a series of compact, rugged SSD drives specifically designed for traveling image makers. Designed primarily for Mac, the drives are available in 500GB, 1IB and 2TB capacities, and have a USB-C interface with transfer speed sup to a reported 560MB/s.